2IO RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



now only make their appearance in much reduced 

 numbers during the period of their migrations in 

 spring and autumn. 



The largest fowl of all that habitually frequent 

 the Broads has yet to be mentioned, namely, the 

 Heron. The still solitude of the place attracts him, 

 and he quits the marsh dykes, with their frogs and 

 water-rats, for a change to the reed-sheltered broad, 

 where he shares a fish diet with the Otter, the 

 Grebe, and the Kingfisher, all expert fishers in 

 their way. Time was when the Cormorant also 

 made one of them, for eighty years ago these 

 birds nested in Norfolk, as did also the Avocet 

 (1825) and, still longer ago, the Spoonbill (1671) 

 and the Crane (1542). But these birds are no 

 longer to be classed amongst the summer residents 

 of the marshes, any more than the Bittern, the 

 Godwit, the Ruff and Reeve, or the Black Tern. 

 These are now seldom seen, except at the period 

 of their migrations in spring, when a few stragglers 

 appear in the neighbourhood of their ancient haunts, 

 as if seeking for a quiet nesting-place ; or again in 

 autumn, when on their way south from distant 

 breeding grounds less disturbed. At these same 

 seasons the broads are visited by numbers of Black- 

 headed Gulls ^ and several kinds of Terns, or " Sea 

 Swallows," namely, the Common, the Lesser, and 

 the Black Tern, the last named the only one that 

 ever nested in the marshes, the two others invari- 

 ably resorting during the breeding season to the 

 shingle beaches by the sea. 



1 



The Black-headed Gull is figured on page 



12. 



